Transcriber’s note
Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor punctuation
inconsistencies have been silently repaired. The “Index to subjects
connected with the trade and manufactures of Belgium” appears in the
first volume. A list of the changes made can be found at the end of the
book. Formatting and special characters are indicated as follows:
_italic_
=bold=
BELGIUM.
VOL. II.
[Illustration: TOWN HALL, GHENT.]
BELGIUM.
BY
J. EMERSON TENNENT, ESQ., M. P.
AUTHOR OF “LETTERS FROM THE ÆGEAN,” AND “HISTORY OF
MODERN GREECE.”
“L’UNION FAIT LA FORCE.”--MOTTO OF BELGIUM.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
=Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.=
1841.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY SCHULZE AND CO., 13, POLAND STREET.
CONTENTS
OF THE
SECOND VOLUME.
CHAPTER I.
_The Palaces of Brussels_--Palace of the Prince of
Orange--Embarrassment of the government respecting it--Description
of the interior--_Chambers of the Belgian legislature_--Palais de
la Nation--Constitution of Belgium--Variable franchise--Removal
of the picture of Waterloo--THE PARK--Singular scenes of
the revolution--Curious account of the adventures of an
English party at the Hôtel de Bellevue during the riots at
Brussels--_Works of the Société du Renard at Brussels_--The
road to Antwerp--Villas--Old châteaux--House of Rubens and
Teniers--The village of Vieux Dieux--Appearance of the
country--_The tower of the cathedral_--Fortifications--Narrow
streets--Palace of Napoleon--The houses--_History of
Antwerp_--Festival of the ladies’ eve--Immense commerce in the
sixteenth century--Closing of the Scheldt in 1648--Projects of
Napoleon for Antwerp--Arsenal and locks--_Trade from 1815 to
1830_--Affected by the revolution--Transit trade of Belgium--Absurd
system of competition with Holland--RUBENS--Fêtes in his
honour--Modern painters--_Verboeckhoven_--_The Museum_--Rubens’
genius--The Crucifixion--The adoration of the Magi--Vandyke--_The
cathedral_--View from the tower--Crucifix made from the statue of
Alva--Monument of Quentin Metsys--Interior of the church--_Rubens’
Descent from the Cross_--The tomb of Rubens in the Church of St.
Jacques--_Church of St. Paul_--The Calvary and Purgatory--Aspect
of a Roman Catholic place of worship--A lady of Antwerp at
vespers--_St. Andrews’ Church_--Superb pulpit--Monument to Mary
Queen of Scotland--Dinner with M. David--Want of carpets in
continental houses--THE CITADEL--Extraordinary scene--General
Chassé--The patriot army--The singular history of its three
commanders--The bombardment--Places at the theatre to see the
siege. 1
CHAPTER II.
Quays of Antwerp--Peculiar mode of training young trees--The
Scheldt--The flying bridge of Napoleon--Story of Van
Speyk--Polder at the Tête de Flandres--Its catastrophe in
1837--Zwyndrecht--_Different professions of the Belgian
saints_--Story of the curate of St. Joachim--Beveren--_St.
Nicholas_--Dense population--A market--Flemish
ballad-singers--Ancient drama of Flanders--Tamise--RUINOUS
CONDITION OF THE COTTON TRADE _in Belgium since the
revolution_--Its causes--Inability of the government to
afford relief--Diminution of exports since 1833--Remarkable
petition of the trade to the legislature--Remedies suggested
by them--Impracticability of any commercial union with
France--Or the Zoll-Verein--_Dendermonde_--Siege by the
Duke of Marlborough--Description of its present state--Its
manufactures--MECHLIN--Curious old city--The Archbishop
Sterckx--A political prelate--Mechlin lace--Flax--The Cathedral
of St. Romoald--The tower--Carillon--Immense bells--The
corporation of Mechlin--_The tomb of the Bertholdi_--Van Eyck’s
paintings--_Vandyke’s Crucifixion_--Superiority of Rubens in
composition--_Church of Notre-Dame_--“The miraculous draught
of fishes”--Favourite paintings of Rubens in the Church of St.
John--Hôtel de St. Jaques. 80
CHAPTER III.
Scenery around Louvain--_The Belgian railroad system_--Peculiar
adaptation of the country--Policy of Government interference
in their construction--The average cost per mile--Causes of
the difference in outlay between Belgium and England--Cheap
rates of travelling in Belgium--_Accidents_--Success not yet
decided--Louvain--Its extent--THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN--Its
former fame--Its present condition--The bierre de Louvain--_The
great brewery_--Its processes--Amazing consumption of beer in
Belgium--Its different characters--_The Hôtel de Ville_--Its
pictures--Gallery of M. Vanderschreick--The collegiate church of
St. Pierre--_Legend of Saint Margaret of Louvain_--Tomb of Justus
Lipsius--Flight of the “braves Belges” at Louvain in 1832--Singular
change in the character of the people for courage--The present
soldiery--_Terveuren_--The park and palace of the Prince of
Orange--_The Forest of Soigné_--WATERLOO--The Belgic Lion--Its
injury to the field--Irish anecdote--Bravery of the Irish troops
at Waterloo--_Hougemont_--The orchard--Relics of the fight--The
Duke of Wellington’s estate--No monument to him on the field--The
Duke of Marlborough--La Belle Alliance--_Quatre Bras_--The woods
cut down--Beautiful scenery of the Meuse and the Sambre--NAMUR--My
Uncle Toby--The citadel--Don John of Austria--The cathedral--_The
church of St. Loup_--The trade in cutlery--THE DESCENT OF THE
MEUSE--Its beauty and its wealth--Andennes--_History of Mr.
Cockerill_--His influence on the manufactures of Belgium--_His
print-works at Andennes_--Ruined by the revolution--_The
manufacture of paper in Belgium_--Huy. 117
CHAPTER IV.
Huy--The citadel--Churches--_The mineral and coal districts of
Belgium_--Prosperity of coal mines--Quantity produced in Belgium
compared with other countries--Its price at Ghent, Brussels,
and Antwerp--Panic in 1836 for the exhaustion of coal in
Belgium--Scenery of the Meuse--Remarkable individuals born in its
vicinity--Chateaux of Aigrement and Chokier--_Seraing_--Immense
extent of the works--Its produce within its own walls--History
of the establishment--Palace of the Prince Bishops of
Liege--Encouraged by the King of Holland--The building--Huge
steam engine--Surprising extent of the operations carried
on--Iron works--Halls for construction of machines--Vast numbers
of workmen employed--Its exports--_Mr. John Cockerill_--Extent
of his speculations--Development of Seraing attributable to
them--Its future prospects--Policy of England in regard to the
export of machinery--_Importation of machinery into Belgium_--Road
to Liege--LIEGE--No sympathy with its history--Turbulent and
unamiable character of its ancient populace--Prince Bishop declares
war upon France--Share of the Liegois in the revolution of
1830--Her threatened attack upon Seraing--The town--_Manufacture
of fire-arms and cannon_--A flax mill--Its churches poor--The
Palais de Justice--University--_Scenery of the Vesdre_--The
railroad--_Chaud-fontaine_--SPA--Deserted--VERVIERS--The
town--Conduct during the revolution--_The woollen trade of
Belgium_--Want of native wool--Extent and decline of the trade--Its
causes--Statement of M. Briavionne--_Joint Stock Companies_ in
Belgium--Account of two at Verviers--The mania for speculation--Its
failure--The Prussian frontier--Limbourg--Prospects of Belgium--Her
bad condition--Policy of the King of Holland--That of the
present government--Present aspect of their trade--Impossibility
of competing with England--Character of the Belgian
mechanics--_Ruinous effects of the_ “REPEAL OF THE UNION.” 166
CHAPTER V.
Change in the aspect of the country in crossing the frontier from
Belgium into Prussia--Passports, no real inconvenience--Anecdote
of a Jamaica planter--First view of AIX-LA-CHAPELLE--Its
population and employments--_Insurrection of the Patriots in
1830_--Its absurd termination--The Cathedral of Charlemagne--Its
architecture--Donation of Mary Queen of Scots--THE TOMB OF
CHARLEMAGNE--His singular mode of interment--The relics in the
Treasury--The Redoute--Gaming discountenaced in Prussia--_The
Hôtel de Ville_--Statue and fountain of Charlemagne--Environs of
Aix agreeable--Political condition of the Trans-Rhenan province of
Prussia--_Excellent posting arrangements_--Improvement suggested in
England--Aspect of the country to Juliers--JULIERS--_Neuss_--Trade
in crushing oil might be advantageously introduced in Ireland--The
church of St. Quirinus--The Rhine. 219
INDEX TO SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE TRADE AND MANUFACTURES OF BELGIUM.
Fisheries, i. 9.
Lace, manufacture of, i. 41.
Conseils de Prud’hommes, i. 51.
The Linen Trade, i. 55, 68, 129.
Cultivation of Flax, i. 56, 137.
Linen Yarn Mills, i. 63; ii, 193.
Export of Flowers, i. 72.
Manufacture of Machinery, i. 93, 99; ii. 25, 174.
Exportation of Machinery from England, i. 94; ii. 185.
Distillation, i. 131.
Flemish Agriculture, i. 133.
Bleaching, i. 150.
Crushing of Oil, i. 151; ii. 106.
Manufacture of Wooden Shoes, i. 152.
Refining of Sugar, i. 161.
Beet-root Sugar, i. 167.
Calico-printing, i. 170.
Carpet-weaving, ii. 28.
Carriage-building, ii. 29.
Books, ii. 29.
Transit Trade of Belgium, ii. 45.
Shipping, ii. 40.
Silk Trade, ii. 45.
Cotton Trade, ii. 91.
Gilt Leather chairs, ii. 109.
Railroads, ii. 119.
Brewing, ii. 131.
Cutlery, ii. 157.
Paper, Manufacture of, ii. 163.
Coal Mines, ii. 168.
Fire-arms and Cannon, ii. 191.
Woollen Trade, ii. 199.
Joint Stock Companies, ii. 204.
General State and Prospects of Belgian Manufacturers, i. 81; ii. 210.
BELGIUM.
CHAPTER I.
BRUSSELS--ANTWERP.
_The Palaces of Brussels_--Palace of the Prince of
Orange--Embarrassment of the government respecting
it--Description of the interior--_Chambers of the Belgian
legislature_--Palais de la Nation--Constitution of
Belgium--Variable franchise--Removal of the picture of
Waterloo--THE PARK--Singular scenes of the revolution--Curious
account of the adventures of an English party at the Hôtel de
Bellevue during the riots at Brussels--_Works of the Société
du Renard at Brussels_--The road to Antwerp--Villas--Old
châteaux--House of Rubens and Teniers--The village of
Vieux Dieux--Appearance of the country--_The tower of the
cathedral_--Fortifications--Narrow streets--Palace of
Napoleon--The houses--_History of Antwerp_--Festival of the
ladies’ eve--Immense commerce in the sixteenth century--Closing
of the Scheldt in 1648--Projects of Napoleon for Antwerp--Arsenal
and locks--_Trade from 1815 to 1830_--Affected by the
revolution--Transit trade of Belgium--Absurd system of
competition with Holland--RUBENS--Fêtes in his honour--Modern
painters--_Verboeckhoven_--_The Museum_--Rubens’ genius--The
Crucifixion--The adoration of the Magi--Vandyke--_The
cathedral_--View from the tower--Crucifix made from the
statue of Alva--Monument of Quentin Metsys--Interior of the
church--_Rubens’ Descent from the Cross_--The tomb of Rubens in
the Church of St. Jacques--_Church of St. Paul_--The Calvary
and Purgatory--Aspect of a Roman Catholic place of worship--A
lady of Antwerp at vespers--_St. Andrews’ Church_--Superb
pulpit--Monument to Mary Queen of Scotland--Dinner with
M. David--Want of carpets in continental houses--THE
CITADEL--Extraordinary scene--General Chassé--The patriot
army--The singular history of its three commanders--The
bombardment--Places at the theatre to see the siege.
THE palaces of Brussels, which we have been visiting to-day are two;
that of the King is a heavy looking building, which was formerly two
houses separated by a street, which have now been united, and patched
up into one residence, more remarkable for solidity than beauty. It
contains, however, some splendid rooms, especially a grand ball-room
for state occasions, and a few paintings of high excellence. Close by
it, is that of the Prince of Orange, which has been a source of much
embarrassment to the Belgian government. It was erected for the Prince
out of a fund, voted for the purpose by the nation in recognition of
his military services at Waterloo; and it was furnished, I think, in
part, at least, at his own charge. But the whole was barely completed
when the Revolution of 1830 drove the Prince, whom the people so
recently delighted to honor, from his domains and his newly acquired
house.
What was now to be done with the palace! Could the people who had so
recently conferred it on him wrest it back? Had the Prince of Orange
been King, the case would have been different, but he was still no more
than a private gentleman, during the life time of his father. He was
not personally responsible for any political offences charged against
the crown, and the confiscation of his property would, therefore, have
been an act of private wrong. Still there was not wanting a party among
the _esprits forts_ of the Revolution, to urge its appropriation to
the purposes of the state. On the other hand, the Prince naturally
indignant at the expulsion of his family, hesitated to take any steps
for the removal of his property, and the entire of the gorgeous
furniture, both of this palace and another at Treveuren on the borders
of the Forest of Soignies, given to him under the same circumstances,
and at the same time, by the nation, were left behind untouched, but
by no means abandoned, as they were still under the charge of his
domestics and agents.
Perhaps, too, in addition to the national unwillingness of the Prince
by the breaking up of his establishment, to avow his consciousness
of the utter hopelessness of the family ever retrieving their lost
position; he may have felt that his deserted palace, with all its
portraits, statues, busts and paintings, its sumptuous decorations
and elegant and refined bijouterie, left as he had last used them,
apparently, in all the hurry and alarm of flight, would be a desirable
memento to leave behind him to the party who still sighed for the
restoration of his house. And that on this consideration, he was in no
haste to make any new disposition of it.
Be it as it may, however, the palace and all its contents remained
under the protection of the Belgian government, though in the actual
custody of the Prince’s servants, down to the final ratification of
the treaty for the independence of Belgium in 1839, and visitors were
admitted to its sumptuous apartments on obtaining an order from the
minister of finance. That formal abandonment, however, by Holland,
of every recognized claim upon its sequestrated dominions, left the
Prince of Orange no further pretext for the apparent desertion of his
property, and within the last few weeks, the contents of the palace
have been in process of removal to the Hague. The books, the paintings
and bijouterie are already gone, and the rest of the furniture is
speedily to follow, so that, at present, the only objects to be seen,
are the hangings of embroidered silk and velvet, the superb ormolu
candelabra in the ball room, the gilded chairs, and almost priceless
tables of lapis lazuli and malachite, one of which has been estimated,
I know not how correctly, at 500,000 francs, and another at three times
that sum. They were presents from the Emperor of Russia to his sister
the Princess of Orange, together with the slabs of Siberian granite,
with which the walls of some of the magnificent saloons are encased,
and which is of extraordinary whiteness and beauty.
The exterior of this really superb residence, for it is too small to
correspond with our ideas of the magnitude of a palace, is utterly
unworthy of its matchless contents and internal decorations, but both
taken together, are said to have cost upwards of twenty millions of
francs, and before its dismantlement, it was beyond all comparison
or question, the most recherché mansion in Europe. Perhaps the most
interesting apartments are those of the Princess, consisting of the
usual bedrooms, baths, boudoir, library, and reception rooms, all
of which remained undisturbed as their illustrious occupant had left
them, when setting out on that journey to the Hague, whence she little
imagined she was never again to return to Brussels. Her books and
drawings still lay upon the table, her writing materials and some
papers on the portfolio beside them, and all the charming little
nic-nacs of the boudoir still remained undisturbed from the disposition
in which her own hand had last arranged them. It is not possible
that the sympathy which even a foreigner feels on a visit to such a
spot, should not have been warmly shared by a large proportion of the
Belgians themselves, with these interesting souvenirs perpetually
before them. I presume the palace will still be left open for the
public; and even if divested of its more luxurious ornaments, its
marble walls, rich ceilings, and floors of costly marqueterie, will
still render it the bijou of Brussels.
The building in which the Belgian parliament holds its sittings, is
situated in the same square, on the side opposite to that occupied by
the royal palace. It is a large, Grecian edifice, with a considerable
quantity of sculpture and architectural decoration externally, but
within, its passages and chambers have almost a republican simplicity
and absence of ornament. The main edifice itself is not new, having
been erected by Maria Theresa, for the ancient Conseil de Brabant--it
now bears the commodious name of the _Palais de la Nation_. Adjoining
it, in the Rue de la Loi, the Downing Street of Brussels, are the
official residences and offices of the ministers of finances and public
works, and the home and foreign secretaries of state.
The entrance hall is a very large and low vestibule, paved with
dove-coloured marble, communicating with two staircases, which lead
to the chambers of the commons and the senate. In conformity with
the anti-aristocratic spirit of the constitution, which declares the
equality of all orders, the chamber of the upper house has nothing in
its furniture to distinguish it from the lower, except, indeed, that
the latter is by far the larger and more handsome apartment of the
two. That of the senate is a moderate sized square room, with a green
table surrounded by chairs. That of the commons is a semi-circle,
lighted from above, surrounded by columns which support the roof, and
fitted up with benches covered with green morocco, with conveniences
for paper and writing materials before each member, and in front of
these is the chair of the President, and the tribune to which each
orator advances in succession to address the house. It is in the latter
chamber that the King opens and closes, in person, the sittings of the
Assembly, at the commencement and end of each session.
Instead of the anomalous hours and seasons of the British Parliament,
those of the Belgian Assemblies are in winter, and at mid-day, and
its discussions open to the public, with a power invested in any ten
members, to demand a vote of the Chamber for the exclusion of strangers
during any particular debate. The secretaries at the table, are
members of the House, and take share in its proceedings. The number
of representatives is regulated by the amount of population, in the
proportion of one member for every 40,000 inhabitants; and that of the
senate is _one half_ the number of the other House. The latter are
chosen for eight years, and the former for four, and the elections
take place for the senate every fourth year, when one half retire,
and for the commons, every second. The qualification of a senator, is
the payment of 1,000 florins a-year of direct taxes, whilst that of a
representative is only two hundred, or about £10. The members of the
lower House receive each 200 florins a-month, during the sitting of
the house; a distinction is conferred on the members of the upper of
having neither pay nor perquisites. The ministers have seats in both
assemblies, and a right to be heard in their discussions, should they
require to speak, but no power to vote in the divisions; either chamber
may, also, require their presence and explanations if essential to its
deliberations.
The _elective_ franchise, I forgot to state, varies in amount in
the different provinces, but in all it requires the elector to be
twenty-five years of age, and by birth or naturalization, a Belgian.
A distinction is also made between the electors of the towns and the
peasants of the same province who vote for the same member. Thus,
for the province of Antwerp, the elector for the city must pay, as
his qualification, eighty florins of direct taxes, annually, whilst
the peasant is only required to pay thirty. In Brussels and Ghent,
the sum is the same as in Antwerp; in Liege, it is seventy florins;
in Bruges, sixty; in Courtrai, fifty; and in Ostend, forty, down to
thirty-five for some of the smaller city constituencies. The scale
seems to be regulated, throughout, in proportion to the agricultural or
commercial reputation of the electoral district; Luxembourg and Namur,
for instance, are the lowest in the list, and their peasantry pay but
twenty florins, or something less than twenty shillings a-year; whilst
in Limbourg, the qualification is twenty-five, and thirty in each of
the other six provinces of the kingdom.
The lower chamber was, till lately, decorated with two paintings of
the battles of Nieuport and Waterloo. In the latter, the principal
figure was that of the Prince of Orange, at the moment of his receiving
his wound in the action. This unhappy painting seems to have been a
source of some embarrassment--to keep such a conspicuous memento of the
expelled dynasty, and that, too, recording its strongest claim upon
the gratitude of the nation; and, above all, to leave it suspended in
the very midst of the revolutionary leaders, must have been peculiarly
awkward. But then, this objection did not extend to the battle of
Nieuport--one of the most decisive victories of the patriots over the
Spaniards in the war of liberation, and to take down the one without
the other would have looked peevish. The difficulty seems, however,
to have been surmounted, for we found them both gone; and that of
Waterloo, we saw in a back apartment, awaiting, perhaps, its removal
to some still more secluded depository.
The Park, which forms the centre of the square, which is flanked
by these public buildings, is the favourite promenade of the
Bruxellois--the Tuilleries’ garden of their little Paris, and, in fact,
it is _a garden_, its dimensions being too small to merit its more
dignified title. Without being either Dutch or cockney, it contains
as many varieties of ornament as could well be disposed of in so
small a space--broad green slopes, tall trees and shaded walks, with
fountains, busts and statues in abundance. Within the gardens, there
is a miniature theatre and a café, and a ball-room, called La Salle
du Wauxhall, and in summer, a military band plays during the evening
promenade. This little “pleasance” was, in 1830, the focus of the
revolutionary riot, where the Dutch troops, under the command of Prince
Frederick, made their unfortunate entry into the city, and after an
interval of carnage and incendiarism, retired, without a demonstration
of their strength, or a vigorous effort to crush the revolt. The
houses and trees still bear traces of these sanguinary “three days,”
the latter having their wounds still bound up with plates of lead and
iron nailed over the spots which were torn by the balls.
The scene which this now peaceful spot presented on the morning after
the departure of the Dutch troops, is thus described by an eye witness.
“In the park, the statues, trees, gates, and ornaments were shattered
or defaced; the walks, alleys, and hollows were strewed with fragments
of fire-arms, gun-carriages, weapons, and military equipments. Here the
mangled bodies of dead horses obstructed the path; there lay a still
palpitating, half-stripped corpse, and beside them a dozen others,
barely covered with a few hands-full of earth or leaves. Ensanguined
and discoloured streaks marked the trace where some wounded victim
had dragged himself from the scene of combat; and deep indentures in
the sand, with dark coagulated pools, covered by myriads of insects,
indicated the spots where other gallant men had made their last death
struggle.”[1]
In the very midst of this scene of commotion and carnage, the Hôtel
de Bellevue, the favourite resort of the English, was occupied, at
the moment, by a party of our fellow countrymen, and a few females of
distinction. In a pamphlet which I picked up at Brussels, published at
the period, I found the following graphic detail of the siege which
they sustained--a chapter of real romance, such as occurs in the
lives of but few of the generations of tourists who annually swarm in
Brussels. It professes to be written by an English officer, who was one
of the party.
“When the King’s troops commenced the attack on Brussels, on the
morning of the 23d., the English in the Hôtel de Bellevue consisted
of Lady Charles Bentinck, niece to the Duke of Wellington, and two
daughters, the eldest about thirteen, Mr. and Mrs. George Harley
Drummond, Mrs. and Miss Wolseley, (an interesting girl), Captains
Dent and Sibbourn, and their respective servants. The cannonading
had scarcely begun near the Schærbeck gate, when Captains Dent and
Sibbourn hurried to the boulevards, behind the palace of the Prince
of Orange, to observe, if possible, the advance of the troops, and to
see a nine-pounder belonging to the bourgeois pointed and served. In a
few minutes, however, they heard the grape-shot rattling in the trees
over their heads, which induced them to return to the hotel, when, just
as they were turning the corner of the house, a shell burst within
a few yards of them. This sufficed to show, that on the part of the
troops, the most hostile dispositions had been determined on. Shells
and grape-shot were thrown in abundance from the rising ground outside
the gate of Schærbeck, along the Rue Royale, towards the Place Royale.
From the hotel, we had a good view of the advance of the troops, who
were received by a brisk fire from the bourgeois, who occupied houses
on each side of the street, and who made great havoc amongst the
military; but the latter, by dint of superior numbers, were not long
in reaching the park, which the bourgeois had, most unfortunately
for themselves, and most unaccountably, neglected to occupy. They
rushed through the park, and took possession of the King’s palace,
which was also unoccupied. Rapid, however, as was this success, they
were never able, during the four day’s fighting, to proceed in this
direction, and all their attempts to gain the Place Royale proved
fruitless, notwithstanding the very brisk fire they incessantly kept up
against the burghers. It is a curious fact, that not more than about
two hundred of the latter were upon the Place Royale, when repeated
attacks were made upon it by the military, but they had three or four
nine-pounders remarkably well served.
With a view to take possession of these guns, a party of not more than
forty lancers, advanced along that part of the Hôtel de Bellevue facing
the park; but they had scarcely reached the corner, and got into the
fire, when they faced about, and hastily retreated as far as the King’s
palace. A sharp fire of both cannon and small arms now commenced, which
continued without interruption until the final retreat of the troops.
The situation of the English ladies in the Hôtel de Bellevue became
very critical at this moment. We had all removed to a room on the
second floor, facing the Place Royale, but some of the burghers having
entered the house, commenced firing from the roof, which naturally drew
upon the building the fire from the troops.
The rapid succession of shots from and against the hotel, and the
constant fire of artillery close to its gates, with the shouting of the
people, were enough to intimidate the stoutest female heart. We found
it absolutely necessary to take the ladies to a lower part of the house
more under cover, though in descending the great staircase, they became
exposed to a sharp fire of musketry. However, we succeeded in getting
them safe down. The place of refuge was the cook’s garde-manger, a sort
of cellar, on a line with, but a few steps lower than the kitchen.
Being vaulted and under ground, we remained there in comparative safety
until the afternoon of Saturday the 25th. The ladies gradually became
accustomed to the noise of the fire over their heads, and as two of
them were naturally of a very lively turn of mind, the cellar presented
occasionally a scene of hilarity, fun, and good humour, which strongly
contrasted with the more frequent one of alarm, fear, and despondency.
It must not be supposed that the ladies were confined prisoners during
the whole time in the cellar; curiosity prevailed, even at the risk of
life, and there was many a creep up stairs to gain a peep at the scene
without. At the same time, it would be unjust to attribute this motive
to one lady, Mrs. Drummond, whose kind heart and genuine philanthrophy
induced her to visit the wounded whom they were constantly bringing
into the hall, and to render every assistance in her power to those
brave fellows who though in agony, silently but significantly
expressed their gratitude.
“Oh woman in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspin made,
When pain and anguish wring the brow
A minist’ring angel thou.”
Mrs. Drummond had a wonderful escape. Before she quitted her apartments
at the commencement of the attack upon the town, shots passed through
them, and in a few minutes afterwards they were filled with all kinds
of projectiles: one ball in particular lodged itself on the fair
lady’s pillow. In the afternoon of the second day of the battle, a
Belgic gentleman and his family entered the cellar where they made
good their quarters, having been previously staying in another part of
the hotel nearer the King’s palace. There was something in this man’s
appearance so disagreeable, that none of us felt disposed to give him
a a very cordial reception, and the result proved that we were by
no means unworthy disciples of Lavater. About the middle of Saturday
(the third day) a Liegois chief came into the cellar evidently with
a view to reconnoitre the party, when Mrs. Drummond, by one of those
sudden impulses which seem to belong more to the secret workings of an
all-directing providence, than to spring solely from human foresight,
extended her hand to him, and begged him to embrace her, intimating at
the same time that she trusted to him for protection. The chief nobly
replied that with his life he would defend her, and shortly afterwards
left the cellar. The kiss thus bestowed upon the cheek of this man,
dirty and black as he was from the thick of the fight, was indeed a
most lucky one for us, as it was certainly the means of saving the
lives of the whole of our party both ladies and gentlemen. In three
or four hours afterwards, there was more than usual bustle and noise
in the house, in consequence of the burghers having occupied it in
still greater force, and brought one of their guns into the yard,
ready, upon the opening of a gate, to pour grape shot upon the troops
immediately opposite in the park. It was at this moment also, that the
Belgic gentleman hastily entered the cellar, and desired his family
to follow him as quick as possible. He had scarcely reached the front
gate, when the same Liegois chief above mentioned seized him as his
prisoner. In fact he was a traitor, and had been strongly suspected by
the burghers of giving provisions during the night to some officers of
the royal troops through one of the gates facing the park. Certainly,
many circumstances which it is needless to detail, tended to convince
us that these suspicions were but too well founded. Had the burghers
rushed into the cellar, there can be no doubt, considering the highly
exasperated state they were in, that we should all have fallen victims
to their rage. Another Liegois chief has since told me that having
taken compassion upon this Belgic family, he used every exertion to
restrain the fury of the burghers, and succeeded in conducting them
to the Hôtel de Ville; still they were very roughly handled, and the
mother and daughter (a beautiful girl of seventeen), were completely
covered with mud which had been thrown at them. There were now many
indications of a most desperate conflict in and about the hotel, and
as our staying any longer there, seemed to subject us to the imminent
risk of being massacred by the infuriated Dutch should they gain
possession of the building, or of being buried in its ruins, should
it be battered down, or set on fire, it became necessary to take some
decided steps. The master of the hotel appeared to be much agitated.
He had become a marked man from his having casually harboured the
traitor, and from other circumstances. I shall never forget the style
in which Lady C. Bentinck addressed him at this moment. She seemed to
be fired with the spirit and decision of her illustrious uncle, and
insisted upon the master giving his true opinion whether it was safer
to quit, or to remain in the house. He declined for some time to give
an opinion either way, but at last told her she had better go. Lady
Bentinck instantly decided upon leaving, and the whole party agreed to
follow her example. When in the act of preparing to depart, five or
six armed burghers entered the cellar and offered to escort us to a
place of greater safety. They had evidently been sent by the Liegois
chief. The party now left the cellar: arrived at the gate, some little
hesitation being shown, the Liegois chief whispered to Mrs. Drummond
“_Vite vite, Madame._” We sallied out, Lady Bentinck with her daughters
leading the way. Captain Sibbourn with Mrs. Wollesley on one side and
Miss Wollesley on the other were the next; behind them were Captain
Dent and Mrs. Drummond, followed by Mr. Drummond and his little boy,
the whole party being escorted by six burghers. The latter having
conducted us along the Place Royale as far as the church, desired us
to cross the Place with them as quickly as possible, as we had now to
pass through a very heavy fire of grape shot and musketry. It was a
most trying moment for the poor women, who could distinctly hear the
shots whizzing past them. When we had got into the most exposed part of
the Place, Mrs. Wollesley fell down, and it was quite impossible for
Captain Sibbourn to get her on, as her daughter on his other arm was on
the point of fainting at the sight of her mother on the ground. But two
or three of the brave burghers, thinking the poor lady was wounded, ran
forward from the cover under which they were firing, and carried her
on their shoulders. It was quite a miracle that not one of the party
was touched by a shot. The burghers having thus got us through the
principal danger, conducted us by bye ways and back lanes to a house
of great safety where we remained until the next morning, when we were
obliged to go still further off, and to break up the party by securing
such apartments as we could obtain in different hotels lower down in
the town.”
* * * * *
We went to-day to see another of the great machine manufactories of
Belgium, the works of _La Société du Renard_, which are the property
of a joint stock company, who purchased them from their original
proprietor. Though on a vast scale, they are by no means so extensive
as the Phœnix at Ghent; they are calculated for the production of
every description of machinery, but chiefly of locomotive engines, and
the heavier articles. The establishment is fitted up for five hundred
workmen, but at the time of our visit, it had not employment for
more than fifty. The chief apartment is one spacious workshop nearly
square, covered in, and so extensive, as to be traversed by a railway
for the convenience of moving the heavier pieces. The directors had no
orders in hand at the moment, but were preparing some locomotives upon
speculation. The cost of one of these of thirty horse power, is about
40,000 francs.[2] I cannot but fear, that these large establishments
have been inconsiderately run up in Belgium, and that the recent demand
for machinery, both for railroads and factories, has given a hectic
air of prosperity to Belgian manufactures, that has led to investments
of this kind, far beyond her real wants. Even at present we find an
universal protestation, that the quantity of machinery already in
action, is more than sufficient to supply all the demands of her trade.
At Ghent, we found the Phœnix works fully employed, a circumstance
obviously accounted for, by the simultaneous erection of three joint
stock spinning mills, but we were told, on the spot, that when the
orders for these were completed, it was not clearly discernible whence
others of similar importance were to come. In other parts of Belgium,
the same diminution of employment is seriously felt, and the Renard is,
as I have stated, almost at a stand still. The railroads of Belgium,
when once supplied with engines, cannot possibly be expected to keep
so many and so extensive works in regular employment, and even now I
observed under a shed at the station of Ghent, two English locomotive
engines from Newcastle, neither of which had yet been used, but which
were laid aside as a reserve. The capital sunk in the Renard, is said
to be 700,000 francs, and besides it, there are three minor houses of
the same kind in Brussels.
Except some print works, bleach-greens, and others connected with the
cotton trade, Brussels cannot be said to have any manufactures of
importance. The carpets which bear its name, are all woven at Tournai,
but the competition of England, has seriously interfered with them in
the production of the ordinary articles, the importation of which into
Belgium has increased since 1830, from the value of twenty thousand
francs, to one hundred and thirty thousand annually. But in those
articles which are more peculiarly incidental to a capital, carriages,
musical instruments, jewellery, and furniture, the reputation of
Brussels stands deservedly high. The carriages, especially, which one
sees in Brussels, are remarkable for their elegance and substantial
finish. The public conveyances also, the fiacres and vigilantes
are superior to those of any city I know on the continent. It is
remarkable, however, that in common with every other handicraft, the
coach-makers of Belgium are complaining of depression, there were
eighteen establishments of this kind in Brussels in 1838, of whom one
half only were to be found in 1839.[3]
One most flourishing branch of trade in Brussels, is that of books;
and more especially of reprints of French and foreign literature,
with which it plentifully supplies almost every country of Europe.
The value of the volumes thus produced annually, is estimated at
upwards of _six millions_ of francs, of which _two millions_, at
least, are for contrefaçons of foreign literature. In point of price
they are much below that of France, notwithstanding that their paper
is more expensive, nor is cheapness their only recommendation, their
typographical beauty is of the highest order, and some of their
_éditions de luxe_, illustrated by wood-cuts, and arabesques are in
every way equal to those of Paris, and much superior to any attempts
hitherto made in England, where the hardness of our sized paper,
prevents the engravings from delivering a rich impression, and our
pressmen accustomed only to work with it, want that delicacy of hand,
which is essential to use the soft and spungy paper of the French and
Belgians.
* * * * *
The railroad took us to Antwerp, a distance of thirty-four miles, in
something more than an hour and a half. As usual the country lay as
level as a bowling-green, and now and then the line of the railway
intersecting the old paved highway, shewed on either side a vista
of elms and poplars, as straight as the flight of an arrow, and so
long that no opening was discernible in the distant perspective:
occasionally we flew past some Dutch looking country box, with its
red roof and whitened walls, its clipped hedges and grave looking
garden, with parterres of sunflowers and dahlias; and here and there
a grim little château, surrounded at each angle by a turret, like
a pepper-box, and covered by a tiled roof, as tall and as sharp as
the peaked hat of a burgomaster, seated in a coppice of alders and
firs, and looking as primitive and secluded as if the railroad were
the first visitant that had broken in upon its retirement from time
immemorial. One of these pompous little manor houses, at some distance
from the road between Malines and Brussels, was a residence of Rubens;
and another called the Dry Thoren or Three Towers, not far from it
at Perck, was the property of Teniers. The intention of the great
perpendicularity in the roofs, in the Low Countries, was to prevent
the lodgment of snow in their severe winters, and in the towns were
building ground was so extremely valuable, to obtain rooms for storing
fuel and other bulky articles, without trenching upon the space below.
The road between Malines and Antwerp, passes through the hamlet of
Rosendael, (the Vale of Roses) where there was formerly a rich abbey of
Cistercian monks. Duffill, a small manufacturing town, and a village
bearing the remarkable name of _Vieux Dieu_, from a pagan temple,
which is said to have been erected there at some remote period, and
the site of which is pointed out in a clump of elms, a “sacred grove,”
within which an altar is still erected on the occasion of any religious
procession in the parish. Approaching Antwerp, the surface of the land
becomes more uneven, much of it has been recovered from the rivers
which traverse it, and is sunk in deep rich _polders_, which the roads
traverse upon raised causeways. The agricultural toil seemed here to be
extensively shared by the women, who were busied in its most laborious
processes.
The first feature of Antwerp is the soaring and majestic tower of its
Cathedral, springing from three to four hundred feet above the level
plain. Beyond any comparison, this is the most chaste and beautiful
steeple I have ever seen, its extraordinary height between three and
four hundred feet, being less surprising than its airy and graceful
lightness. It tapers up arch above arch, not in solid masonry, but
pierced with innumerable openings, through which the clear blue sky is
seen through the gothic net-work of its minarets and spandrils. It was
of this handsome spire, that Charles V. said, it should be preserved
under glass, and Napoleon with more vraisemblance, observed, that it
reminded him of _Mechlin lace_. The entrance to the city, by the Porte
de Borgerhout, gives a striking impression of its great strength,
its fortifications rising in huge mounds of brickwork, above broad
and river-like fosses, and the road after passing draw-bridge after
draw-bridge entering a ponderous arch, apparently hollowed out of the
ramparts, on emerging from which the wheels rattle and re-echo over the
rough pavement of the narrow gloomy streets, that lead into the heart
of the city.
Its appearance is like that of all the other ancient fortified towns
of the Low Countries, where the circuit of the city, being girt in
and determined by the line of the walls, the necessity of economizing
space led to the construction of gloomy passages, and lofty houses
that overshadow the street, and keep the sun from ever shining upon
the pavement. Towards the centre of the town, however, there are some
ample streets, and a lively square, the _Place Vert_, planted with
trees and surrounded on all sides by hotels, cafés, and modern houses
of great elegance. In the _Place de Mer_, there is a spacious mansion,
surmounted by the royal arms, which is dignified with the name of a
palace, but was merely the mansion of a merchant of Antwerp, and was
purchased by Napoleon, as a residence for himself and his marshals, on
their temporary visits to the city. It is still retained for the same
purpose by King Leopold. In an adjoining street, which bears his name,
is the house and garden of Rubens, the site of which he purchased from
the corporation of the Arquebusiers, whose hall was next door, in
exchange for his great picture in the Cathedral, of the “Descent from
the Cross.” The generality of the houses are built of dark sand-stone,
without any architectural decoration, except their castellated gables,
which, as usual, are turned upon the street; the windows are generally
furnished with espions, and at many of the corners, niches in which are
seated tawdry Madonnas, covered with a profusion of brocade and copper
lace. The weather became rainy before we left, and this together with
the want of footways to the streets, the filth of the centre, and the
odours which the unusual stream of water awoke from every sewer, left
our impression of the domestic comforts of Antwerp, less agreeable,
than it might have been, had we seen it under the influence of light
and sunshine.
Antwerp like all its fellow cities in Belgium, boasts an origin of
obscure antiquity, so remote as the fifth or sixth century, it is
said,--but at all events in the tenth, it was of sufficient importance
to constitute a Marquisate for Godfrey of Bouillon, the hero of Tasso,
and the King of Jerusalem, the unexpected arrival of whose followers
from the Holy Land, in January 1100, has been commemorated in a
festival still observed by the women of Antwerp, as the Vroukens-Avond,
or the _Ladies’ Eve_, in remembrance of the domestic fêtes which
welcomed their return.
Two hundred years after, it was annexed along with the province of
Lower Lorraine, to the Duchy of Flanders, and along with it passed
successively under the dominion of Burgundy, Germany and Spain, sharing
in all the vicissitudes and disasters which befel the rest of the
Netherlands, under their various dynasties.
Antwerp contests with Holland and Germany, the glory of the discovery
of printing. Little books of devotion, printed there, from solid
blocks, early in the fourteenth century, are still in existence;
numbers of volumes in moveable types, bear its name and the date of
1476; and during the sixteenth century, in the days of Plantin, it
was one of the most extensive seats of printing in Europe, all the
productions of its press, and especially its classics, being in the
highest repute.
The original citadel and fortifications were erected by Philip II,
which were strengthened and enlarged in the reign of Charles V,
at a time when Antwerp was one of the first commercial cities in
Europe. Its manufactures of linen and silk were then exported to
every part of the world; its woollen trade was the parent of the same
manufacture in Great Britain, and its local historians, perhaps with
some exaggeration, describe its commerce as so flourishing, that the
population supported by it, exceeded one hundred thousand souls,
(though one is puzzled to discover where they found accommodation
within its walls) and fifty thousand sailors and travellers on the
river and in the faubourgs; and Scribanius declares that he has seen
2500 vessels in the Scheldt at a time, of which five hundred daily
entered the river, whilst two thousand lay at anchor before the
city; but, “_pour être témoin véridique, il ne suffit pas toujours
d’être témoin oculaire_.” It was in this era of its splendour, that
one of its merchants entertaining Charles V, at a banquet, kindled a
fire of cinnamon, then a costly rarity, with the Emperor’s bond for
two millions of florins, observing, “that the honor of having such a
guest at his table, was infinitely more precious than the gold.” Its
prosperity was, however, annihilated a century later, when at the
treaty of Munster, which closed the Thirty years’ war in 1648, Holland
had sufficient influence to obtain the closing of the Scheldt. For
nearly one hundred and fifty years, this noble river flowing through
the midst of one of the most active and industrious countries in
Europe, was forbidden to be navigated by a single native sail, every
vessel which bore produce for Antwerp, being compelled to transfer
her cargo to a Dutchman under whose flag alone it could reach its
destination. This unnatural embargo was terminated by the French in
1794, and Antwerp under the dominion of France, rose again into new and
augmented importance.
Napoleon, enamoured of his theory, that France was nothing unless
with the Rhine for her eastern boundary, and the Scheldt for the
northern station of her navy, conceived numerous projects for its
realization. At one time planning to build a city at Terneuse, at
another, fixing on the vast alluvial plain that surrounds the Tête de
Flandres, but finally determining to make Antwerp, herself, the object
of his ambitious care, and render her, in his own words, “a pistol,
perpetually at the throat of England.” With this view, its military
defences were all restored--huge basins constructed at the east of the
city, capable of floating, one twelve, and the other forty vessels
of the line, and store-houses, rope-walks, and sail manufactories;
everything, in short, for the equipment of an arsenal, were prepared
upon a gigantic scale.
In acknowledgment of these magnificent favours conferred upon their
city, the merchants of Antwerp presented Napoleon with a frigate,
fully equipped and stored. In 1807, ten vessels of the line had been
built at Antwerp; in 1813, _thirty_ ships of war had been launched, and
fourteen others were still upon the stocks. The fall of the Emperor,
however, preceded that of his intended victim, and by the treaty of
Paris in 1814, his vast constructions at Antwerp were ordered to be
demolished--his buildings and magazines were all destroyed--the vessels
of war found within the basins, were portioned out between Louis XVIII
and the Prince of Orange, and the docks, alone, were spared from
destruction, partly from the difficulty of accomplishing it, and partly
at the entreaty of the merchants of Antwerp, as a harbour of refuge for
their ships, which were liable to serious injury from the ice, which,
in winter, is borne down the swollen current of the Scheldt.
The period of its union with Holland, however, from 1815 to 1830, may
be said to have been the golden age of Antwerp. Its situation for
trade is by far more favourable than either Rotterdam or Amsterdam,
and being admitted, along with them, to an equal participation in all
the resources of the kingdom, it rapidly outstripped them in every
department of trade, so much so, that, at the period of the revolution,
“_Antwerp did more business, in every article of colonial produce, with
the exception of tobacco, than Amsterdam and Rotterdam united._”[4]
The events of the revolution put an instantaneous check to this
career of affluent prosperity; Antwerp, compelled to form a portion
of the independent kingdom without colonies, or commerce, or foreign
relations, found her shipping laid up idle in her docks, and her
merchants, conscious of the ruin which had overwhelmed their prospects
at home, transferred their capital, and their exertions to Holland, and
united their fate to that of their now triumphant rivals. In 1838, all
the ports of Belgium possessed but one hundred and eighty-four sail of
merchant vessels, of whom one hundred and fifty-two were employed
merely in the coasting and channel trade, and thirty-two in foreign
voyages, whilst, in the same year, Holland had no less than 1400 sail.
From the events of 1830, and their results, Antwerp never has, and
never can, thoroughly recover. For some years after the Repeal of the
Union, her quays and harbour were literally motionless and empty; and,
at the present moment, even with occasional revivals, her trade appears
to have only the fate of Venice or of Genoa in prospect. Her chief
employment is in carrying the raw material which is to supply her own
manufactures, and which she must do at a disadvantage in freights, as
her shipments in return fall far short of her importations. Of 2662
Belgian vessels, which cleared out from her various ports between 1831
and 1836, no less than 739 _went out in ballast_!
In the years immediately succeeding the revolution, the shipping trade
of Antwerp seemed to undergo an absolute paralysis. In 1829, the year
preceding the Repeal of the Union, 1028 vessels entered the port,
amounting to a tonnage of 160,658 tons. In 1831, the year after the
Repeal, only 398 vessels entered the Scheldt with a tonnage of 53,303
tons! Since that period, a superficial glance at the returns, would
lead to a belief that the trade had more than recovered itself.
In 1832 1,254 vessels entered with a tonnage of 150,294
1833 1,104 129,607
1834 1,064 141,465
1835 1,089 153,243
1836 1,245 176,079
1837 1,426 225,030
1838 1,538 257,048
1829 955 136,456
1830 1,028 160,658
But on coming to scrutinize this table by the test of the relative
quantities in cargo and in ballast, the air of prosperity grows
fainter, and the real nature of the trade more distinct. It appears by
the following table, that of 5694 which _arrived_ in all the ports of
Belgium in the years 1835, 1836 and 1837, the entire were freighted
with cargoes, except 141. Whilst of 5707 which cleared _outwards_ in
the same time, no less than 1833 left Belgium in ballast, in other
words arrived with the produce of other countries, but departed without
carrying away any Belgian manufacture in return.
STATEMENT _of number and tonnage of vessels, distinguishing Belgian
from Foreign, and vessels with cargoes and those in ballast, which
arrived and departed at ports in Belgium, during each year, from
1835 to 1837_.
+-----------+--------------------------------------------------+
| | BELGIAN. |
| Years. +-----------------+--------------+-----------------+
| | With Cargoes. | In Ballast. | Total. |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----+--------+-------+---------+
| Inwards. | No. | Tons. | No. | Tons. | No. | Tons. |
| 1835 | 472 | 47,409 | 6 | 408 | 478 | 47,817 |
| 1836 | 493 | 67,808 | 5 | 295 | 498 | 68,102 |
| 1837 | 540 | 71,282 | 24 | 2,004 | 564 | 73,346 |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----+--------+-------+---------+
| Outwards. | | | | | | |
| 1835 | 402 | 41,522 | 72 | 6,529 | 474 | 48,051 |
| 1836 | 422 | 56,665 | 99 | 13,436 | 521 | 70,101 |
| 1837 | 438 | 57,355 | 116 | 16,303 | 554 | 73,658 |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----+--------+-------+---------+
+-----------+--------------------------------------------------+
| | FOREIGN. |
| Years. +-----------------+--------------+-----------------+
| | With Cargoes. | In Ballast. | Total. |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----+--------+-------+---------+
| Inwards. | No. | Tons. | No. | Tons. | No. | Tons. |
| 1835 | 1,316 | 160,104 | 48 | 4,877 | 1,364 | 164,981 |
| 1836 | 1,289 | 160,378 | 40 | 4,073 | 1,329 | 164,451 |
| 1837 | 1,443 | 214,739 | 18 | 886 | 1,461 | 215,625 |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----+--------+-------+---------+
| Outwards. | | | | | | |
| 1835 | 916 | 105,545 | 457 | 61,711 | 1,373 | 167,256 |
| 1836 | 869 | 105,224 | 476 | 59,863 | 1,345 | 165,087 |
| 1837 | 827 | 131,088 | 613 | 84,497 | 1,440 | 215,585 |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----+--------+-------+---------+
Antwerp and Ostend are suffering, also, by being defrauded of their
fair proportion of legitimate commerce by the extensive system of
contrabandism, which prevails upon all the Belgian frontiers, and
is carried on in foreign vessels; a loss to which they would not be
subject, were the government in a position to protect the portion of
trade to which the country must still give employment, by an effectual
system of the _douane_ upon the frontiers and the coast.
Antwerp had once a most extensive manufacture of silk; in 1794, there
were twelve thousand workmen employed in that branch alone. The
number is now reduced to two hundred, and their only employment is in
producing a beautiful description of rich black taffetas, which is used
for the Spanish head-dresses, still worn by females.
Another most important branch of maritime trade, that of the transit
of goods for consumption in the interior of Europe, has been almost
entirely drawn from Antwerp by the Dutch, but the government hope
to recover it, by means of the railroad, from the sea to the Rhine.
Here, again, the most formidable opposition may be looked for from
Holland, whose vessels on the Rhine are prepared to dispute with
her the possession of this important department. Independently of
the fact, that the carriage of goods by railway in England, where
it has been most extensively tried, has not, as yet, answered the
expectations of its projectors; the Dutch, having by their recent
treaty with Prussia, obtained the free navigation of the Rhine, on the
same footing as those vessels which bear the Prussian flag, will be
disposed to make sacrifices in their freights, in order to underbid
their rivals by land; the loss on which will be a very trifle compared
with that which must ensue, if the Belgians are disposed to play out
the same “desperate game with cold iron.” At the present moment, I
am told, that the Rhinvaeders, of from two hundred to three hundred
tons burthen, carry goods for from eight to nine florins the _last_,
from Rotterdam to Cologne. This charge, it is natural to suppose, they
will be able to reduce, so soon as a competition is instituted by the
railroad. The advantage on the side of the latter will be manifest,
as regards the item of time, the journey to Cologne by the railroad
occupying but twenty-four hours, for what may require a number of days
by the Rhinvaerder. But the question is--can the directors, or rather
the government, whose property it is, reduce the carriage so low, as,
with charges of all kinds, to underbid the Dutch to such an extent
as to command a preference? A Belgian gentleman, who spoke to me in
high hopes as to the ultimate success of the railroad in the struggle,
admitted, at once, that it could only be achieved by a dead loss upon
the adventure--_which, however, he said, the government would, as
usual, bear out of the taxes_! Well may the merchants of Antwerp apply
to the concocters of the revolution, the complaint against those who,
“intending to build a tower, set not down first and count the cost
thereof.”
A journey to Antwerp is a pilgrimage to the shrine of Rubens.
Rubens is the tutelary idol of Antwerp--it was his home, though
not his birth-place--his favourite residence, and the scene of his
triumphs; and he has left to it the immortal legacy of his fame,
his master-pieces, his monument, and his grave. Its museum and its
churches are enriched by his principal pictures; and the inhabitants
pay back, in grateful homage to his memory, the renown which his genius
has entailed upon them. Fêtes in his honour, on a style of great
magnificence, had been celebrated but a few weeks before our visit; to
inaugurate his statue, which was crowned by the city, amidst public
rejoicings, processions, music, banners, and all the pomp of civic
triumph. The excitement had not yet subsided, and we found every table
covered with portraits of the great painter, verses in his praise, and
programmes of the recent festivals; and, with every individual, the
absorbing topic was something connected with his name and his monuments.
Antwerp has long been entitled to distinction as a nursery of the
arts. The list of painters which she has produced is quite surprising;
and in addition to those with whom we are familiar, as Teniers, and
Vandyke, and Snyders, her churches abound in pictures by natives of
the city--by Metsys, and Florus, and Jansens, Quellyn, Seghers, Crayer,
Franc, Jordaens, and a multitude of others, who form a numerous gallery
in themselves. Her enthusiasm in the cultivation of genius seems never
to have flagged, and its unimpaired appreciation, at the present day,
is attested, not only by the pride of its population in their public
treasures, museums and churches, but by the vast number of private
collections, at the houses of its nobility and merchants, which abound
with the choicest pictures of the Dutch and Flemish schools, those of
other countries being less eagerly sought after. From fifteen to twenty
of these private galleries exist in Antwerp; and an equal ambition
prevails throughout to maintain the ancient character of the city, by
the patronage of its living artists. We saw an exhibition of modern
pictures, in a room attached to the museum, which contained some of
unusual ability, especially landscapes and cattle, amongst which some
sheep and cows by Verboeckhoven of Brussels, eminently entitle him to
the epithet which his countrymen are fond of bestowing on him, of the
Landseer of Belgium.
The Museum in which a large collection of Rubens and Vandyke’s pictures
are deposited is an ugly suite of rooms in an obscure corner, the
building having been a suppressed convent. It is situated in a little
garden, ornamented, or rather disfigured by some wretched statues, as
if their worthlessness was meant to serve as a foil to the gems within
doors. It is curious that that which ought to be a native collection
does not contain a single piece of Teniers, except one wretched thing
which it is libellous to ascribe to his pencil, and only two of
Snyders. In England, where the best pictures of Rubens’ pencil are
comparatively unknown, and where our countrymen are accustomed only
to his allegorical subjects and ungraceful women, the homage rendered
to his abilities is, I think, rather an echo of his continental fame
than a genuine appreciation of his merits; but any one who wishes
thoroughly to estimate his loftier pretensions, and ardently to admit
his claims to admiration, should visit the Museum and the Cathedral
of Antwerp. Here his pictures evince not power alone, not merely that
wonder-creative imagination that peoples the canvass with the most
masterly compositions, but they exhibit a sweet adherence to nature,
a rich perception of beauty, and a magical command of expression and
action, that makes the canvass record the event it commemorates like a
page of history or the voice of a poet. It is impossible, for instance,
to look at “the Descent from the Cross” without almost expecting the
attitudes to change as the act proceeded, so eager and intent are the
countenances of his figures, and so earnest and real their occupations;
and in the same way in the picture of “_the Crucifixion_,” where the
Centurion has already broken one of the legs of the malefactor on the
left, who has torn it from the cross under the agony of the stroke, and
the soldier has the iron raised to crush the other; one’s very flesh
thrills in anticipation of the scream that seems about to issue from
the excruciated lips of the sufferer. This is a marvellous picture in
every respect, and certainly the pride of the Museum; each individual
figure is a perfect episode--Christ himself, in all the dignified calm
repose of recent death; the soldier, with his hand raised to pierce
his side, whilst Mary Magdalene, who seems in a paroxysm of suffering,
to have been clinging around the foot of the cross, springs forward
in a sudden agony of terror, with her arms outstretched to intercept
the spear. This head of the Magdalene, Sir Joshua Reynolds pronounces
to be “the most beautiful profile he ever saw of Rubens or any other
painter.” Finely contrasted with the stirring action of these figures,
is the expression of the mother of Jesus, who appears stupified by the
exhaustion of her very sufferings, and that of the good Centurion, who
leans forward over the neck of his horse in evident sympathy and horror
at the scene before him.
“_The Adoration of the Magi_” is another picture of Rubens, well known
in England from its innumerable engravings. It is, however, in every
respect inferior to the Crucifixion, though a superb picture. But
there are two charming paintings, the insensible attraction of which
is, perhaps, the sweet repose of the subject; one a Christ exhibiting
his wounds to satisfy Thomas’s incredulity, and the other the Virgin
instructing St. Anne. It is impossible for any creature to sit before
these, and another exquisite little copy of “The Descent from the
Cross,” and to retire from them unimbued with a veneration for the
genius that could conceive and embody such imaginings. There are in all
fifteen paintings of Rubens in this collection, and they are certainly
triumphs of his easel; the gallery at Munich possesses no less than
_ninety-five_ of his works, but after having seen both, I would rather
have five of these at Antwerp than the ninety-five which are the boast
of Bavaria.
There are five or six pictures by Vandyke, but they are in the same
style with Rubens, groups from sacred subjects; and they do not bear
to be placed in such immediate contact with the chefs-d’œuvres of
his master. Vandyke’s unrivalled portraits, and his single figures
are as much superior to those of Rubens, as the latter excels him in
combination and compositions. Their productions are as an epic poem to
a lyric or a sonnet; and whilst Rubens is the Homer of his art, Vandyke
may be well contented to be its Pindar or Plutarch. The rest of the
walls are occupied with the canvass of the other second rate names
which have competed for fame with these great originals, Van Thulden,
Seghers, Jordaens, de Vos, and a picture by Quellyn, which, I presume,
to be the largest in the world upon canvass, as it occupies the entire
end of the gallery, from the ground to the roof, and must be, at least,
forty feet broad by sixty or seventy high. With the exception of Rubens
and Vandyke, in fact, the collection is commonplace. In one of the
halls is appropriately placed, as a relic of Rubens, the gilt leather
chair which he occupied when president of the academy. Unfortunately it
has not proved the tripod of the Pythoness to his successors.
I think it is Dr. Clarke who advises every traveller, who wishes
speedily to map the spot in which he finds himself in his memory,
to take the earliest opportunity of ascending the nearest tower or
mountain, and I am most fully prepared to certify for its advantages.
One half-hour on the tower of the Cathedral of Antwerp will give a
stranger a better idea of its localities and extent, than a week’s
driving around its streets and environs. The Cathedral itself is
situated near the pretty little square called the _Place Vert_, (which
was, I think, at one time a burying-place attached to the church). The
building itself is defaced, as usual, by a number of ordinary houses
erected against its walls, and which, of course, cover up all the
exterior beauty of the architecture. It stands, tradition says, on a
spot of ground which belonged to a monastery founded by Godfrey of
Bouillon. The exquisite steeple, however, was built shortly before the
reign of Charles V., (who stood as godfather to the great Bell,) from
a design which originally contemplated two towers of equal grandeur
and elegance, but one only was completed. The ascent is fatiguing in
the extreme; and as the day was stormy, the vibrations of the tower
were sensibly felt as the wind rushed through its beautiful galleries.
Workmen have been employed for some years in restoring all the decayed
portions of the stone-work, and the steeple is still filled with
their scaffolding and machinery. But the view, long before gaining
the extreme summit, is by far the finest in Belgium, extending, as it
does, over the broad current of the Scheldt, whose windings can be
traced from Ghent to Flushing, whilst to the north, the eye can reach
Breda and the frontiers of Holland; to the south and east, the distant
cities of Brussels, Mechlin, Turnhout, and Louvain. The vast extent
of country which is swept by one of these Flemish prospects is really
quite inconceivable, whilst the absence of a single hill to intercept
the horizon upon either side, renders them as peculiar as they are
surprising.
Over the grand doorway, as we enter below the tower, is a crucifix in
bronze, which was cast from the fragments of a statue which the Duke
of Alva erected to himself upon the Citadel, with the insulting motto
on its pedestal “_ex ære captivo_,” in allusion to its being made out
of the cannon, taken in his first successful battle against the Prince
of Orange at Jeminghem, near Emden in 1568. This memorable statue gave
origin to the distich,
Cur statuam vivo tibi Dux Albane dedisti?
An quia defuncto nemo daturus erat?
Requesens, the successor of Alva, in his anxiety to conciliate the
people, took down this record of their sufferings, and concealed it,
but being discovered by the citizens after the “Pacification of Ghent,”
it was by them melted and applied to its present purpose.
Opposite the Cathedral, in the square, is a gothic screen of iron work,
which covers a fountain; tradition says it was made by Quentyn Metsys,
“the blacksmith of Antwerp,” an operative Cymon, who was converted
into an artist by the charms of a Flemish Iphigenia, whose father
consented to her marriage only when her lover had become a painter.
An inscription on a stone, near the great door of the Cathedral, which
enrols Metsys as a “pictor incomparabilis artis,” acknowledges the
obligation of the arts to the attractions of his mistress.
“Connubialis amor de Mulcibre fecit Apellem.”
The body of the church within is of immense extent, so great, indeed,
that our cicerone ventured to say it was five hundred feet in length,
and half that in breadth at the transepts. The gothic arcades, which
separate the nave from the side aisles are of prodigious height, and
with the innumerable pillars that support the organ and surround the
choir, the coup-d’œil, at entering, presents quite a forest of columns;
“these, and the dim religious light,” falling upon the monuments
around, from lofty windows emblazoned with armour, and the effigies
of ancient ecclesiastics; and streaming downwards from the richly
painted dome give an air of solemnity to the whole as striking, though
by no means so magnificent, as Westminster Abbey. Before the period
of the French revolution, and whilst Antwerp was still the seat of a
bishopric, (it is now appended to the see of Malines), the Cathedral
was one of the richest in Europe, abounding in altars of marble,
candelabra of silver, paintings, statues, and jewels, which were all
despoiled or destroyed by the followers of reason. Among them was an
_ostensoir_ for holding the holy elements of the host, in massive gold,
which had been a gift from Francis I. The treasury is still abundantly
supplied with donations of a similar kind, though of less intrinsic
cost perhaps, and its innumerable chapels, with their altarpieces
and ornaments, its sumptuous choir, and astonishing carved pulpit by
Verbruggen, covered with allegories and quaint devices, form a scene
which is remarkably imposing.
The innumerable paintings which are hung in every space, might,
elsewhere, receive a suitable homage of admiration, but here, eager
expectation leads one only to the triumphs of Rubens. Rubens has four
superb pieces here, “The Elevation of the Cross,” “_The Descent from
the Cross_,” “The Resurrection,” which adorns the tomb of Moretus,
the printer, and the “Assumption of the Virgin,” over the centre of
the grand altar. I never saw a more striking illustration of the
power of a picture, than the effect produced by the Descent from the
Cross. It was closed by its two folding volets when we entered, the
backs of which contain, likewise, two designs by Rubens, one of St.
Cristopher, the patron saint of the guild of arquebusiers, for whom
he painted the picture, and the other, of a hermit, neither of them
of great merit. These engaged no attention, apparently, but when,
bye and bye, the sacristan moved them to either side, and displayed
the astonishing picture within, the effect was quite remarkable--the
loungers and passers-by were now arrested, one by one, as they came
within the circle of attraction, till a little crowd of peasants and
soldiers were collected before it, in the most breathless attention,
and, as if struck with a new sensation, I saw them look silently in
each others’ faces, apparently to discover whether others felt as
they did themselves. One girl, with a basket on her arm was caught at
once, as she passed, and remained with the rest, quite abstracted in
contemplation; it recalled Wordsworth’s exquisite description of the
street musician by the Pantheon:--
What an eager assembly! what empire is this,
The weary have life and the hungry have bliss,
The mourner is cheered and the anxious have rest,
And the guilt-burthened soul is no longer oppress’d.
That errand-bound 'prentice was passing in haste--
What matter--he’s caught, and his time runs to waste;
The newsman is stopped, though he stops on the fret,
And the half-breathless lamp-lighter he’s in the net.
The porter sits down on the weight which he bore,
And the lass with her barrow wheels hither her store;
If a thief could be here, he might pilfer with ease,
_She sees the musician, ’tis all that she sees_!
The genuine admiration of this artless assemblage, was as marked a
triumph to the genius of Rubens, as the pecking of the birds at his
basket of fruit was to the execution of Apelles. I never saw such a
rebuke to the “cant of criticism,” and I could not but feel it to be
a compensation for the judgment of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who, I do not
know why, professes to have been _disappointed_ with its excellence.
The picture was painted for the corporation of gun-smiths, in order to
compose a quarrel as to the ownership of a stripe of ground, on which
they alleged that Rubens had encroached, in the erection of his house
and gardens. Another story concerning it, is that the pupils of Rubens,
in their romps during his absence, had thrown down one of their number,
who in his fall, had rubbed out the arm of the beautiful Magdalene, and
that, in order to restore it before the return of their master, they
selected Vandyke, who repaired it with so much ability, that Rubens
acknowledged its superiority to the original. The painting, like all
the other treasures of Belgium, was one of the ornaments of the Louvre,
during the reign of Napoleon.
_The tomb of Rubens_ is in a little chapel, consecrated especially to
his family, in the Church of St. Jacques; it is situated immediately
in the rear of the high altar and the choir. Its only ornament is an
exquisite picture of a Holy Family, by “the illustrious dead,” in which
he has introduced portraits of himself as Saint George, his two wives,
Isabel Brandt and Helen Forman, as Martha and Mary, his father as St.
Joseph, his grandfather as Time, and his child as a cherubim. In a
vault beneath, is laid the
dust which is
Even in itself an immortality.
It is covered by a single slab of marble, with an inscription which
records the talents and the learning of the Seigneur of Steen (Stein
i toparcha), of whom it says, “_non sui tantum seculi, sed et omnis
ævi Apelles dici meunt_. His genius,” it proceeds to say, “elevated
him to the friendship and the confidence of kings and princes; so that
when named a counsellor of state, by Philip IV, King of Spain and the
Indies, and despatched as his ambassador to the court of England, he
laid the basis of peace between his Sovereign and King Charles II. His
family are now extinct, and this monument to his memory, which had
long, as the inscription says, been neglected by his last descendants,
was restored in 1775, by one who was then a canon of the cathedral, and
who traced a relationship with the great painter in the maternal line,
“_ex matre et avia nepos_.””
The church which contains this interesting tomb, is, in proportion to
its extent, the most splendid in Antwerp. In its chapels there are
some sculptures in marble, in alto-relievo, of surprisingly elaborate
execution, and of merit sufficient to entitle them to a visit to Paris,
which they, of course, made under the paternal government of the
Emperor. Its walls are, also, covered by quantities of Flemish pictures
of value, adorned with statues by Verbruggen, Willemsens and Quellyn.
At the entrance to the _Church of St. Paul_ is a “Calvary,” one of
those exhibitions of the sufferings of Christ, that by the coarseness
of their conception and their barbarous execution, create a feeling
of disgust in any mind of intelligence or taste, and to the ignorant,
whom they are intended to attract, must connect the solemn idea of the
Saviour with the most coarse and revolting associations. It consists
of a vast crowd of horrid-looking statues to represent the faithful
priests, holy men, and prophets, surrounding a rock, out of and in
which, a number of angels and saints are flying and walking; and below,
a tomb, with the body of the Saviour on a bier--the whole surrounded
by little holes and recesses, in which the wicked are represented,
undergoing all the tortures of purgatory, in forms and attitudes as
varied, at least, if not so poetical, as those of Dante. The interior
of the church abounds, as usual, with statues and paintings, amongst
which are some of Teniers and Vandyke, and the grand altar is decorated
by a masterly statue of St. Paul from the chisel of Vanbruggen.
The congregation was assembled for vespers when we entered the Church
of the Augustines to see Rubens’ picture of “The Marriage of St.
Catherine.” It is quite opposed to all our protestant feelings of the
decorum and reverence due to the solemnity of public worship, to see
the indifference and almost rudeness with which the valets-de-place
conduct their parties of sightseers around a church, regardless of its
most impressive ceremonies, brushing past the altar in the full blaze
of its panoply, and disturbing the devotions of all who may intercept
their view of a picture. It was almost painful to listen to the “cant
of criticism,” amidst the chanting of anthems, clouds of incense, and
the solemn pealings of the organ, but it appeared to excite no such
feeling in those around us. With us, however, in England, the outward
solemnity of public worship is increased by the impression that it
is the fervent and simultaneous out-pouring of the hearts of a whole
united multitude; whilst in the Catholic churches, except in the few
minutes occupied by the repetition of the mass, the act of worship
is individual and apart, and performed almost by rote, at any hour
of the day, from sunrise to evening. The parties, whom I shrunk from
interrupting, as we slipped past their little _prie dieu_ chairs,
seemed to feel nothing whatever at the intrusion, but raised their
eyes for a moment from their missals, to take a view of the strangers
and then returned to the point where they had left off. This apparent
indifference, gives a bad impression of the reality of their devotions;
but still it was not universal, and I have seen in the Roman Catholic
churches, numbers whose whole soul seemed to be abstracted from all
that was passing around them in the deep sincerity of their adorations.
In Antwerp, and, indeed, elsewhere, but here we remarked it
particularly, the vast majority of the congregation were females, who
invariably seem to be the most devout. I was particularly struck with
a young mother, apparently a lady of rank, and of most interesting
appearance, who walked up the aisle of the Augustines, holding two
beautiful children by the hand, and kneeling between them before the
high altar, repeated the vesper prayer along with them. The innocent
fervour of the children, as with their little hands clasped and timid
eyes, they looked upwards at the splendour of the altar, now lighted
up for the evening ceremony, and the modest devotion of their gentle
mother as she taught them to pray, was a more exquisite picture than
all the gorgeous imaginings of Rubens, with which we had been enchanted
in the morning.
It was dark ere we could complete our visit to the other churches of
Antwerp, which here, as elsewhere, are the great depositories of the
public treasures. We had light, however, to see the exquisite pulpit
in the church of Saint Andrew. This is by far the noblest work of this
kind that I have seen: it represents a boat drawn upon the sea shore,
beneath a rock on which Christ stands, and calls to the fishermen
Simon, Peter and Andrew, “follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men; and straightway they left their nets and followed him.” Nothing
could be more appropriate than the selection of this subject for such
a purpose, and in the church of Saint Andrew too, and nothing of the
kind can excel the extreme beauty of its execution. The figures, which
are full of grace and expression, are by Van Geel,--and the other parts
and minute details, are by Van Hoole, some of which, such as the fish
and nets in the boat are as delicately finished as those of Grynlyn
Gibbons. Against one of the gothic columns of this church, by the south
transept, there is a small portrait and an obscure little monument
in black and white marble to the memory of Queen Mary of Scotland,
erected by two of her maids of honour, “præ-nobilis familiæ _Currell_,”
who had attended her to the scaffold, and had then returned to the
Low Countries. Its inscription records their indignation at her fate,
“seeking refuge in England where her relative Elizabeth was Queen,
she was, by the perfidy of the parliament and the heretics, held in
captivity for nineteen years, and then had her head cut off for the
good of religion. _Perfidia senat: et heret: post 19 captivit annos,
relig: ergo caput obtruncata._”
We dined with M. David, a wealthy merchant, for whom we had brought a
letter of introduction; and if his house is to be taken as a specimen
of the rest, the merchants of Antwerp must indeed be “princes.” It
occupied three sides of a large court-yard, with lofty staircases on
either side of the porte-cochère, the rooms furnished with English
carpets, and the walls, as usual, covered with some excellent pictures
by native artists. It is singular, that the use of carpets should be so
slow in making its way upon the continent; climate is not the cause,
because in countries much colder than England, they equally reject them
with the countries of the south. Independently of their comfortable
enjoyment, they are as much a _picture_ on the floor as stucco work or
frescoes are a picture for the ceiling. We seem to divide the two with
our continental neighbours; with us the floors are richly decorated,
and the ceilings forgotten, comparatively, whilst with them the
ceiling is the great field for the display of taste, and the floors
of ordinary houses are seldom more costly than earthen tiles or sanded
fir. In their palaces, indeed, the idea of an English floor is adopted,
but it is exhibited not in velvety carpets, but in the more expensive
material of an inlaid _parquet_.
The Citadel of Antwerp is now little more than a patch of ground
encompassed by the circuit of its fortified walls; the chapel and the
interior buildings, which once occupied its centre, having been blown
to dust by the bombardment in 1830. The accounts which an eye-witness
gave us of some of the scenes of this siege, were an admirable
illustration of the slight space that separates the ridiculous from
the sublime. The sensible people of the city were, as I have before
mentioned, dreadfully opposed to the revolution, and M. Rogier, and
the other leaders of the “_patrioterie Brabançonne_,” having in vain
essayed to persuade them that they were the most suffering population
in Europe, were about to give them up as
Wretches no sense of wrongs could rouse to vengeance,
Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded,
Spiritless outcasts,
when the victorious republicans resolved to carry their arms to the
gates of Antwerp, and achieve its regeneration by assault and storm.
They accordingly invaded the city, seven thousand strong, and sent a
summons to General Chassé to surrender. The general, who had resided
for years in the city, was well aware of its loyalty, and had likewise
been inspired by the Prince of Orange with a confident hope that the
rebellion would yet be stayed without bloodshed. He looked on the
martial display of the “liberators” only as a riot which might be
quelled by the civil power, if it did not sooner expire of itself, and
he advised the magistrates, as the best means to save the city from
being destroyed by artillery, if he were compelled to repel them by
force, to assent to their entrance within the gates, on an express
understanding that they were not to approach the citadel, or molest
the gun-boats in the river, and that they were merely to hold quiet
possession of the town till the commandant should communicate with the
Hague. To save the property within the walls from destruction, the
magistrates complied, and opened a negociation with the commanders of
the insurgent force. The mortifying degradation of this step, and the
violence which it must have been to the feelings of men of loyalty
and respectability, may easily be imagined when it is known who these
commanders were. One was a Monsieur Mellinet, a French officer, who had
been compelled to abscond in consequence of “a suspicion of debt” and
a conviction of bigamy. Another was a M. Neillon, a Frenchman also and
a private soldier, but since a _major-general_ in the Belgian service.
He had a short time before been hissed off the stage at Antwerp, when
an actor at the theatre there. Like General Vandamme, who, when a
barber’s boy at Ghent, had been whipped and banished for thieving,
and vowed never to return unless at the head of an army, _which he
lived to accomplish_; M. Neillon is said to have launched a similar
threat against the audience of Antwerp, which he too had, perhaps,
sooner than he expected, the means of putting in execution. The third
was a Monsieur Kepells, once an artillery man in the Dutch service,
but whose chief occupation had been carrying the skeleton of a whale
round the country, the same which was afterwards exhibited at Charing
Cross in London, and from its huge dimensions acquired the title of
“the Prince of Wales.” It was to these three eminent commanders, that
the opulent merchants of Antwerp were now compelled to surrender quiet
possession of their town. The negociation was concluded by them in
utter ignorance, however, of the real strength of the insurgent army,
but when the gate was thrown open, and the mob rushed into the city,
the gentleman, who was my informant, and had been an eye-witness of
their entry, declared that their appearance baffled all description.
They poured like a torrent of mud through the gate, some with no shoes,
some with but one, some without hats or head-covering of any kind, some
few on horseback, others dragging along two field pieces with ropes,
some with guns and swords, others with bludgeons, but the vast majority
with no arms of any kind,
“Viribus confisus admirandisque lacertis!”
They instantly broke faith with the townspeople, denied the right of
the magistrates to enter into any convention with the Dutch commandant,
an alien and a foreigner; and proceeded forthwith to attack both the
citadel and the gun-boats, in which they had an idea that there was
money deposited, in direct violation of their specific stipulations.
They assaulted the hospital attached to the citadel, killed some
four-and-twenty poor invalids, and put the rest to flight over the
back wall into the citadel, when old Chassé, reluctant to give credit
to the probability of their perfidy, believed it to be some mistake,
and gave them twenty minutes to retire. But instead of following his
advice, they attacked the arsenal in search of arms, upon which Chassé
fired a few guns from the ravelin in the hope of dispersing them, and
finally hauling down the white flag, he opened the whole thunder of the
citadel, the forts and the fleet in the harbour; he beat the arsenal to
the ground in a few minutes, and setting fire to the great warehouses,
known by the name of the _entrepôt_, which was stored full of
merchandize--the whole were in a few hours reduced to ashes and ruin.
In the meantime, the shot and shells which were falling in the town
were playing havoc in all directions; the inhabitants fled in terror,
or hid themselves in the cellars; the prison caught fire and disgorged
its inmates, and the whole city seemed threatened with instant
destruction; till the magistrates having succeeded in reaching the
citadel, succeeded in appeasing the rage of the indignant commandant,
and procured a renewal of the truce. What a picture of the leaders, the
agents and the acts of a revolution!
The subsequent siege by the French in 1832, when the Dukes of Orleans
and Nemours “fleshed their swords” against the Dutch, was something
equally characteristic. It inflicted no injury or danger upon the town,
being confined merely to the citadel and the trenches around it, and
was rather regarded by the inhabitants as a kind of grand military
drama, which was got up at the expense of Holland and France for their
amusement. The French, in fact, did all in their power to contribute
to its theatrical effect. They had not smelt powder since Waterloo,
except across their own barricades, and they were impatient to make
a grand display for the recovery of their reputation. The operations
were conducted with all the pomp and paraphernalia of a parade, and
the soldiers marched to work in the trenches with colours flying and
trumpets sounding. In fact, so thoroughly melodramatic was the whole
affair, that seats on all the elevated parts of the city were hired out
to view it, and the roof of the theatre itself, being a suitable place,
the play-bills announced, “_the public is informed that places may be
procured at the Théâtre des Variétés for seeing the siege!_”
With the exception of its churches, Antwerp possesses no public
buildings of any importance. The Hôtel de Ville was, at one time, a
rival for any in the Netherlands, but it was burned by the mutinous
Spaniards of the army of Requesens in the sixteenth century, and the
present edifice has nothing very remarkable in its appearance. It is
situated in a curious little antique square, surrounded by old Spanish
houses, and amongst the rest, one in which Charles V was wont to
lodge on the occasion of his visit to the city. The _Exchange_ is the
model from which that of London was constructed, a square court-yard,
surrounded by arcades with groined arches, and supported by truncated
pillars in the Venetian style, with rudely sculptured capitals. The
_Hanseatic House_ is another huge mercantile depôt which stands between
the two basins of Napoleon. It is of vast dimensions and is visible
from a considerable distance on all sides of Antwerp. In an old tower
near the Marché de Poisson, we were told that there were still to be
seen the dungeons which had been occupied by the Inquisition during the
reign of the Duke of Alva and the “Council of Blood.”